An important but sometimes difficult skill for children or persons with learning disabilities to learn and master is the skill of counting money, including the ability to count change in coins.
The gaining and mastering of this skill allows children or persons with learning disabilities to function in society with less concern and supervision. That is, if a parent or a person responsible for a person with a learning disability is assured that that child or disabled person can make his or her own purchases, and take care of himself or herself in situations involving the use of money, the parent or responsible person will permit the child or disabled person to venture further by himself or herself.
Also, the mastering of this skill allows children or disabled persons to gain more mobility since, for example, they can count the change necessary to take public transportation, they know the correct change to put into a pay telephone, etc.
Moreover, with respect to persons with learning disabilities, the ability to properly handle coin and paper currency may lead to job opportunities for that disabled person. For example, if a person has a learning disability, but he or she is able to count change, he or she may be able to get a job as a cashier, a store clerk. etc. This is particularly important if the person has a further disability which impedes his or her working abilities, such as being confined to a wheelchair. Therefore, the handling of money is a very important skill for persons with learning disabilities to acquire and master.
Unfortunately, the ability to properly handle currency, and in particular, coins, is frequently difficult to learn since the relative values of the coins are difficult to comprehend. In fact, confronting a person with a learning disability with the relative values of coins can be so confusing and so overwhelming that the person is too scared to attempt to learn.
Devices have been developed which attempt to teach children and persons with learning disabilities the relative values of coin currency, see German Pat. No. 2,321,677 issued on Nov. 21, 1974; U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,488,864 issued on Jan. 13, 1970 to McManus; 3,690,017 issued on Sept. 12, 1972 to Holmquist and 4,571,189 issued on Feb. 18, 1986 to Shank. However, none of these devices effectively teach the relative values of coins and what combination of coins comprise arbitrary monetary values.
In addition, games have been developed for teaching basic arithmetic skills. Examples of such games are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 462,376 issued to Cowan on Nov. 3, 1891; 1,836,870 issued to Quer on Dec. 15, 1931; 2,502,238 issued to Wade et al. on Mar. 28, 1950 and 2,950,542 issued to Steelman on Aug. 30, 1960. These devices may be effective for teaching the arithmetic skills of addition and subtraction, however, they fail to teach the relative values of coins and the proper employment of these coins to derive arbitrary monetary values. Indeed, children or persons with learning disabilities may not be able to correlate numbers with coins. Therefore, these games which teach arithmetic skills do not necessarily teach a child or a person with a learning disability coin values.
In view of the above, it is apparent that there is an important need for an educational device, preferably a game, which can be employed to teach children and persons with learning disabilities how to properly handle coins and paper currency, including teaching them the relative values of different coins and how to compile the proper coins to sum any monetary value.
This invention addresses this need, along with other needs which will become apparent to those skilled in the art once given this disclosure.